ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to inform the debate on men's socio-emotional skills and identities by way of an empirical study of male emergency medical technicians (EMTs) in Denmark. Male EMTs in Denmark constitute the basis for an interesting study of socio-emotional skills because the ambulance service is a male-dominated occupation with a strong working-class tradition. Moreover, it is an occupation that performs 'high-touch' care and bodywork, and which has been vastly upskilled with 'high-tech' knowledge in recent years. The chapter explores the meaning of social-emotional skills in ambulance work and how these skills are used to construct hegemonic and marginalized subject positions amongst male EMTs in Denmark. The data and original analysis in the chapter originate from an ethnographic study of male EMTs in two ambulance departments in Denmark. Because of the conventional gendering of emotions in society in general, men in care jobs are often faced with a series of challenges in preserving a desired gender identity.
